May 24, 2023
The circumstances surrounding Jonathan Gannon's departure from the Eagles for the head coaching job down in Arizona are likely to remain a sore spot for fans for a long time, and a point of wonder.
After the NFC Championship, the Eagles were keeping him as their defensive coordinator, "good, bad, or indifferent," he said. Then the Super Bowl happened, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs picked his secondary apart in the second half, the Eagles lost, and two days later Gannon is suddenly the Cardinals' new head coach.
Then, minutes before the draft started back at the end of April, the Eagles and Cardinals released a joint statement saying that they agreed on a tampering settlement tied to Gannon's hiring, which gave the Eagles the 66th overall pick in the third round.
Anyone on the Eagles will tell you they've since moved on, and after hiring Sean Desai as the new DC and using that draft pick on promising safety Sydney Brown, they probably did.
But what exactly happened there with Gannon's exit? Was there more to that story than anyone involved has been letting on?
Mike Florio, who interviewed Howie Roseman on NBC's Pro Football Talk podcast on Monday, tried to get an answer out of the Eagles' general manager, but didn't make much headway.
That specific part of the conversation, captured via Crossing Broad:
Mike Florio presses Howie Roseman on the Jonathan Gannon tampering charges
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) May 23, 2023
(via @ProFootballTalk) pic.twitter.com/Dbufra46ed
Contentious? Maybe a little bit, but overall seemed to be taken by both in stride. It's the way sports journalism goes sometimes. Florio pressed, Roseman didn't budge, and if there's more to be learned about the Gannon situation from behind the scenes, you're probably going to be hard-pressed to get something out of the Eagles for quite a while.
But hey, you don't know if you don't ask.
Howie wasn't mad at me, I wasn't mad at Howie. We both have a job to do. There's a story about the Gannon tampering that they're keeping under wraps. I'm curious as to what really happened. Fans should be, too. https://t.co/g13KMdKJRo
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 24, 2023
The full interview on PFT, which touched on bouncing back from a Super Bowl loss, the Eagles' 2023 schedule, insight on their draft and taking Jalen Carter at No. 9 overall, and the team's Autism Challenge 5K from last weekend:
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